During the
1980's, a few video game
characters rose to superstardom
ranks. Pacman, Q*Bert and
Donkey Kong went on to have
their famous likeness put on
everything from puzzles to lunch
boxes to stuffed animals. This
led to many other game
characters getting some deals,
with Pitfall Harry, Centipede
and Space Invaders being among
the others. But for every
person who was able to reap the
rewards of stardom and ride the
gravy train, there were dozens
left behind. No matter how
famous they were, they did not
share in the payday and were
left with their hands out. Here
is the story of some of the
endorsement deals that did not
pan out. Part of the blame
could be the Great Video Game
Crash that killed many deals.
Blame also could be put on bad
agents, who did not know how to
sell their clients. Also blame
could be put on the game
characters themselves, who often
thought they were too big for
some deals. No matter who is to
blame, there is a lesson to be
learned here. If you are in a
position to make a big payday,
strike while the iron is hot.
Fame is a fleeting thing and the
longer you wait, the better the
chance that you will miss out on
it.

Pengo for Popsicle
- What would be a better
team-up than a cold weather bird
and a cold treat? Looked like a
match made in heaven and it
almost came about. But the
biggest problem is that Pengo is
a penguin and they are strictly
fish eaters. One of his
requests is to make a fish
flavored popsicle, which ended
up tasting as disgusting as it
sounds. They tried to test
market it, but it bombed
horribly. Out of over a
thousand taste testers, there
were a total of two others who
liked the product, namely Chilly
Willy and Opus.

Sinistar for Slim Jims
- How do you crave the hunger of
Sinistar? With Slim Jims of
course! That was the proposed
slogan for the meat snack. With
Sinistar pronouncing he hungered
and then being fed Slim Jims, he
would be satisfied and leave.
Everything seemed ready to go.
Sinistar even liked the taste of
Slim Jims. But there was one
problem, his hunger could not be
satisfied. They fed him
hundreds upon hundreds of Slim
Jims and he still hungered.
When they ran out, he began
eating the camera crew and soon
anarchy broke out. They were
finally able to lure him back
into space with a giant Slim Jim
and he has not been heard of
since.

Mappy for Cheetos
- Before Chester Cheetah became
the "Dangerously Cheesy"
spokesperson for Cheetos snacks,
there was an offer to Mappy the
Police Mouse. The commercial
went something like this "Of all
the treasures the Cat Gang has
stolen, one stands as the most
prized of all to Mappy the
Police Mouse, Cheetos Brand
Cheese Snacks. So good, so
tasty, they are almost
criminal." Word is that Mappy
was very tough to work with and
by the time they finally came to
terms, the crash came about and
they soon dumped him. He later
went on to star in a very weak
sequel, Hopping Mappy.

Everybody loves the Atari 2600
console, but you can't deny that
it has its share of bad games.
Okay, more than it's share. As a
reviewer I have great fun
trashing these games and
exposing them for what they are.
Here are a few reviews for bad
Atari 2600 games.

Laser Blast (Activision 1981)
F
Sure, there are a few people out
there who like this game, but
trust me, it’s 100% nostalgia.
It has to be, because Laser
Blast is such a bad game.
Everything about it is poor: the
plain graphics, minimal sound,
and mind-numbing, repetitive
gameplay. You control a flying
saucer at the top of the screen,
shooting cannons that crawl
across the bottom in groups of
three. You can’t even get off a
shot until the cannons have
completely moved onto the
screen, which is irritating.
Your enemies shoot solid-line
lasers there's no way to dodge
these things, so the only way to
evade harm is to keep moving.
Too bad your ship comes to a
dead stop whenever you fire. You
can shoot straight down or
diagonally, but the sticky
controls often cause you to
shoot in the wrong direction.
There’s little strategy as you
systematically shoot each three
cannons that march out, until
you just get sick of the whole
thing. If Laser Blast was a
food, it would be boiled cabbage
- it has no flavor. It may well
be the worst Activision game
ever made.
Recommended variation: 4
1 player

Skeet Shoot (Apollo 1981) FYou
know, back in the early 80s,
some game companies would put
out any piece of crap to make a
buck, and Apollo’s Skeet Shoot
is a prime offender. With
ludicrous graphics and
reprehensible gameplay, this
cart is borderline offensive.
Your goal is to shoot as many
"clay pigeons" (gray disks) as
you can out of the air. It’s
hard to imagine a game with
worse graphics than this. Are
you telling me that those ugly
shapes at the bottom of the
screen are supposed to be a man
with a gun? The targets are
launched at three different
angles from the center of the
screen. You can aim in five
directions, but aiming
diagonally is terribly
difficult, even with a good
joystick. There are two target
speeds, with slow being far too
easy, and fast being so quick
you can’t even react in time.
Skeet Shoot has 17 useless
variations, but once you’ve
played one, you’ve played them
all. This game is so bad that
I’d be embarrassed to be caught
playing it.
Recommended variation: 1B
1 or 2 players

Sssnake (Data Age 1982) F
Anybody still wondering why the
video game crash of 1983 took
place needs to look no further
than this game. This is the kind
of trash game companies were
spewing out by the dozens. As
far as the gameplay goes,
Sssnake amounts to a poor man's
Centipede. Your cannon moves
around the perimeter of a small
box in the center of the screen.
The object is to shoot creatures
running around the screen while
avoiding the snakes. The snakes
look like dotted lines, and
shooting them has unpredictable
results. Sometimes they become
smaller and sometimes they
split, but mostly your shots
just go right through them and
nothing happens at all. The
other creatures are pixelated
blobs. Control is awkward, to
say the least. This looks like
an unfinished project. It's got
to be one of the sssloppiest
games I've ever seen.
1 player

Airlock (Data Age 1982) FThe
premise of Airlock is to escape
from a flooding submarine. It’s
not a bad idea, but the
execution stinks big time. This
game could be the poster child
for the 1983 video game crash;
it resembles an unfinished 1979
high school programming
assignment. Lets start with the
putrid graphics. There are five
blocky platforms in what appears
to be the most generic platform
game ever. Your man is a static
stick figure who must jump over
certain blocks while grabbing
rectangles that are supposed to
be keys. Runaway torpedoes move
side to side across each floor,
but for some strange reason,
these torpedoes are shaped like
your man from the waist up!
Worst of all, instead of having
water gradually fill the lower
areas, entire floors simply turn
blue at predetermined time
intervals - ugh!! And then
there’s the poor control, which
causes you to get constantly get
caught up on the barriers. The
sound effects are practically
non-existent, and there’s no
score either - you either escape
or you don’t. Airlock barely
qualifies as a game. Did Data
Age really think the fancy title
screen would make up for the
appalling gameplay? Recommended
variation: 3B 1 player

ET The Extra-Terrestrial
(Atari 1982) FI
can remember all the way back to
1982 when I got ET as a surprise
Christmas present! I couldn't
believe how lucky I was to get
such an expensive game! And when
I saw that awesome title screen
and heard the ET theme, I
thought for sure I had struck
gold. I played it for days, and
somehow convinced myself it was
a good game. Denial is an ugly
thing. Twenty years later, I've
come to terms with my feelings.
The truth is, ET is incredibly
frustrating and almost
completely devoid of fun. The
object is to avoid bad guys
while collecting phone parts
hidden in pits. The problem is,
these pits are EVERYWHERE! You
can barely move without
accidentally keep falling into
one of these annoying things! Is
this supposed to be fun? Who
play-tested this crap? I've seen
the movie, and I don't remember
ET falling into ONE pit, much
less 100 of them! When you're
not in a pit, a symbol at the
top of the screen indicates what
you can do (call Elliott, eat
candy, locate piece, etc.). The
game has some nice animation,
but gameplay glitches, poor
design, and confusing controls
make it a struggle from start to
finish. This was obviously a
rush job. Atari was ultimately
forced to bury its inventory of
ET cartridges in a concrete
landfill. Believe me, they did
us all a favor.
1 player

Greetings, Gamers. Once again we
dip into the'Vault for another pair
of classic gaming ads. You'll
notice a slight name change to
the column starting this month.
I did it mainly so people would
get this column mixed up with a
section on my NES webpage, which
has Nintendo commercials.

Anyway, this month I'm covering
the Intellivision, and I'm
spotlighting a pair of
commercials featuring George
Plimpton.

Intellivision Space Games
There's no doubt that while the
Intellivision had excellent
sports games, Atari had them
beat when it came to
action/arcade games. Then in
1982, with a science-fiction
resurgence in play, both
companies produced space games.
Atari put out ads saying they
had the best games, saying
"nobody compares to Atari." In
this ad from Mattel, a nerdy kid
says that line, only for good
ol' George to come up and
compare them to Intellivision.
As Plimpton shows off the space
line-up, including Space Battle,
Space Armada, and Astrosmash,
the kid is shocked, saying,"I didn't know!"

The ad closes with the kid enjoy
the INTV line-up while Plimpton
says, "The Intellivision Space Games
from Mattel Electronics. Once
you compare, you'll know."

"Let me shows you who has the
REAL space games."

It's like he discovered the Holy
Grail.

"I'm so sorry I doubted you."

Intellivision RebateThis
time we find Plimpton talking
about a rebate offer Mattel had
during late 1982. Of course he
delivers his message the only
way he knows how - by standing
in a tiger's cage!

"The last time Intellivision had
a $50 rebate, I refused to do
it. And they're trying to
persuade me to do another one.
Well, perhaps I was a bit hasty.
After all the Intellivision is a
marvelous system and $50 is a
big rebate. So buy an Intellivision
before November 28* and get $50
back from Mattel Electronics.
And hurry! Can I go now!"

*Offer expired.

Watch out, George, there's
something behind that screen.

He's a brave man for doing this.

"Get $50 back, and that's no
lion."

"Tell me why I'm doing this
again."

Time to sign off for another 30
days. The Retrogaming Commercial
Vault CD is coming slowly but
surely. My goal is to have it
completed by January 1, with 70
ads. If you have any questions,
comments, suggestions, etc,
e-mail me at
Hal_3000@rocketmail.com and
I may add you to my mailing list
to get updates.

BTW, please don't ask me to put
NES ads on the disc. You can
find those at my Nintendo
website, NES Times
(come.to/nestimes). Until next
time, keep gaming.

Debates continued all the time
amongst my friends and I about
which video game machine was the
best. (Not much has changed
hey?!?) But there was always one
way in which my humble Vic 20
always won out, along with other
home computers of the day. That
is creating your own games. This
is something that was just
impossible with an Atari VCS or
Colecovision. But with the Vic
20 and its built in BASIC the
only limit you had was your
imagination (Oh, and the
pathetic 3.5K memory).

As I said in my article last
month, my friends and I were
always busy typing in listings
from magazines. As we became
more skilled at programming we
would then start to make little
changes to the games we typed
in. We would make things a bit
faster, change the sprites a bit
or add some sound effects if
there weren't originally any
there. But then one day a friend
of mine attempted what we all
thought was the impossible,
writing his own game. Oh we of
little faith!! To the surprise
of us all it worked, and the
game turned out to be a pretty
good one too.

Well we were all very impressed
and very inspired. So we took up
the challenge to start writing
our own games. The Vic 20 was
well supported with many books
about how to program. Plus our
little "user group" was always
there to lend a hand if you got
stuck on something. Among us all
we produced some fun little
games. Sure, none of them would
have challenged the likes of
Jeff Minter and Tom Griner, but
we were immensely proud of our
little achievements.

It was during the early days of
learning to write my own games
that I learnt a very important
thing about using computers -
What ever you are doing,
remember to SAVE!!!!

I set about writing a version of
Pong. I wrote out a fair bit of
the program on paper before
inputting anything on the
computer. Then when I started
actually typing it up on the
computer I got on a real roll.
In my enthusiasm I typed in
"RUN" to see what my program was
like. The "Pong" screen appeared
with two bats. It looked
perfect. Then the ball appeared.
It still looked perfect. I was
just so excited. But then it all
went horribly wrong. The screen
jerked and suddenly went all
yellow. There was no curser, no
writing at all. My game had
crashed and I had forgot to save
it. I had no choice but to turn
off my Vic and start all over
again.

And by the way, I did redo the
whole game, remembering to save
it, but it never did work
properly and I ended up just
giving in. On to some reviews...

BLACK HOLEHere
is a real technical achievement
for the Vic 20. Tom Griner is
one of the programmers along
with Jeff Minter that really
pushed the Vic 20 to its limits,
often doing things many thought
was impossible on such a basic
machine. Here in Black Hole Tom
Griner has produced some very
good 3D wire frame graphics. His
programming efforts here earn
him a huge 10 out of 10. As for
the actual game, it is a pretty
good shoot-em-up based on two
classic games, Space War and
Asteroids. You control a small
ship and must destroy the aliens
that appear while also trying to
avoid the gravity of the sun at
the centre of the screen.
Pushing up on the joystick
enables you to thrust forward,
while left and right rotates
your ship. The fire
button…..fires your lasers.
Black Hole is a lot of fun, but
does lack variety. A bit more
variety and it would have easily
made it into the "must have"
category.
My Score - 8/10

DEMON ATTACKThe
famous Atari VCS game is
converted to the Vic 20
brilliantly. It has lost none of
its graphical splendour or
marvellous game play at all. For
the few who have not played
Demon Attack, it is a
shoot-em-up with similar
elements to the likes of
Galaxian and Phoenix. The
graphics are nicely detailed.
Often the Vic 20 can be guilty
of having blocky graphics or
stretched sprites. But Demon
Attack is nice sharp. Game play
is pretty relentless. The demons
constantly attack. The more you
shoot and kill, others just
appear to take their place. When
the demons fire at you, watch
out. They don't let loose just
one little missile, but around a
dozen at a time pour down on
you. When you finish a few games
of Demon Attack your trigger
finger knows it has had a real
workout - but it will be worth
every minute.
My Score - 9/10

GOLD FEVERGold
Fever is a fun platform game
that has some similarities to
Lode Runner. You need to run
around the screen collecting
gold bars that are scattered
about, all the while avoiding
the weird looking enemies that
are pursuing you. You climb up
and down the ladders to get to
the higher or lower platforms.
Pressing the fire button allows
your man to jump over the
enemies. This isn't as easy as
it seems. Once you have
collected all the gold, a red
door appears taking you to the
next level. The graphics are
colourful and reasonably well
defined. Movement is a bit jerky
and that can become annoying.
This certainly isn't a patch on
the brilliant Lode Runner, but
it should keep platform fans
occupied for quite a while. By
the way, what are those enemies?
All I have is the cart with no
instructions, so I have no
documentation to tell me. They
kind of look like watch dogs.
What do others think?
My Score - 6/10

RAID ON FORT KNOXThis
is one of my personal
favourites. I have spent
literally hours playing this.
Raid On Fort Knox is a maze game
where you must break into Fort
Knox and steal all the gold.
Making your job more difficult
are the constantly patrolling
watchdogs. If they catch you,
you're dead! The game starts off
easily enough. Just three gold
bars and one watchdog. But as
you clear each level, the amount
of gold bars to collect
increases, as do the amount of
watchdogs. The sound really adds
to this game. The constant
background sound is a little
like the sound the ghosts make
in Pacman. When ever you pick up
a gold bar the sound goes up a
few tones and gets faster. This
adds to the overall tension and
really gets the blood pumping.
Graphics are simple but
effective and it all moves along
at a great pace, even when there
are heaps of watchdogs pursuing
you.
My Score - 9/10

SATELLITE PATROLAt
first glance this game doesn't
seem like much. The graphics are
blocky and the sound minimal.
But as is often the case with
classic games, the game play
shines through. Satellite patrol
is an original game which draws
a lot of influence from two of
my favourite games, Asteroids
and Time Pilot. This is a
shoot-em-up game where you must
destroy enemy satellites as well
as many asteroids that fly past.
That is where the obvious
Asteroids influence comes into
it. But you don't just stay on a
static screen, but rather the
screen scrolls in all eight
directions as you chase down the
enemy satellites. That is where
the Time Pilot influence comes
into it. If you are a fan of
Asteroids or Time Pilot then you
will love this game. The
graphics are blocky, but they
are very colourful. The
scrolling is nice with just a
bit of slowdown when there are
heaps of asteroids on the screen
at once.
My Score - 8/10

This
month we finish up our double
shot of the best home computer
games
from 1983 with 2 classics
originally made on the Atari
home computers thatmost everyone has seen or
heard of, even if on the NES.
Oops - I erredagain, since every
version of "Boulder Dash" says
’84. Most of thismonth’s 7 reviews are
available only on disk, or
fairly rare as carts - somany of you’ll need to
fire up those emulators.

The Many Faces of...Archon

A
head-to-head competition using
the forces of good (White)
versus evil
(Black), blended
perfectly as part strategy board
game & part arcade
shoot’em up. The board
is similar to chess, with each
army on one side,
but the grid is 9X9 with
25 of the squares always white,
25 always black &
the remaining 31 squares,
called luminous - changing with
the ebb and flow
of time. But first we’re
introduced by names to the 18
characters as they
take the battlefield in
formation. There are 8 unique
mythical or magical
figures. The goal is to
eliminate all enemy pieces or
control all 5 power
squares. These 5 squares
are located at the middle square
along each of
the 4 board edges & one
in the center square. Thus, 1
is on the Wizard’s
White square, 1 on the
Sorceress’s Black square and the
other 3, across the
luminous central row.
Light Forces: Wizard, Unicorn,
Archer, Golem,
Valkyrie, Djinni, Phoenix
& Knight. Dark: Sorceress,
Basilisk, Manticore,
Troll, Shape Shifter,
Dragon, Banshee and Goblin.
Every piece has its own
unique set of traits and
only the pawns (Goblins &
Knights), and also the
Sorceress & Wizard are an
equal match for each other. The
strategy screen
is a top view of the
board where you either move 1
piece each turn, or cast
one of 7 magic spells via
your Wizard or Sorceress.
Spells are: teleport,
heal, shift time,
exchange, summon elemental,
revive and imprison. Each
piece has a means of
travel (ground, air or teleport)
and some movement
range (in squares).
Ground movers cannot pass
through an occupied square,
and when you end your
turn on an opposing piece - you
engage in BATTLE.
The strategy board opens
up into the full screen arena,
putting the pieces
at opposite sides along
with different colored & sized
barriers, anywhere
from a few to a couple
dozen. These barriers may seem
frustrating, but are
critical to play as they
provide a place to hide and add
randomness in
their coming and going,
and how much they will get in
your way, block shots, appear to grab hold of
you and finally to bounce you
backwards off
them. The square’s color
is very important as it provides
bonus power to
the combatant of that
color. For luminous squares,
the power bonus varies
from a small amount when
the color is Green or Magenta,
to the full bonus 2 turns later when completely
White or Black. Luminous
squares remain one of
the 6 color shades one
turn for each player. You begin
each game at a
middle color & work
towards White or Black and then
reversing back and
forth ad infinitum. In
the arena, pieces differ in
their movement speed;
body (target) size;
weapon type (swing, throw or
other); weapon size;
weapon speed; weapon
damage inflicted; stamina
(displayed as a power
indicator bar); weapon
re-load time, and some unique
attack and/or combined
defensive skills. The
composite skills and
capabilities of "light" and
"dark" forces are
considered equal, but again,
nearly every character is
unique.

"Archon" makes a great choice
for classic or neoclassic (NES)
VG tournament
play at conventions or
game parties. No live
competition . . . no problem
. . . because you can
play a computer opponent &
choose who moves first &
who is light or dark.
The CPU only has one skill level
– but is fairly
shrewd at strategy but
somewhat predictable and only
semi-decent as a
combatant. Assuming that
you can easily defeat your
friends or the CPU,
here are a few
suggestions to bring you back
for a greater challenge. Play
left-handed; or never use
"revive"; never use magic; never
initiate a
battle; or never initiate
battle with a major piece; never
use a major
piece (die) in the arena;
and combinations of these.

Home Version Similarities:
Except those in <>: all home
versions have:
two-player simultaneous
joystick action <AP2>; intro
musical score;
individual character
arrival (names & take their
positions on the board); a
demo where you can watch
computer players for several
moves; randomness in battle with changing barriers in
the arena; audio queue when each
weapon
has reloaded; power bar
indicator on screen; and the
game could end in a
draw after a complete 12
move luminous cycle without any
battles.

Have Nots: Spectrum (NA) The
Sinclair Spectrum is the best
classic system that I still
don’t own. Irecently noticed
significant updates to this
system’s large collection ofgames at the
Worldofspectrum.org. My
apologies to the large following
of
Speccy fans - as I’ve finally
confirmed existence of these
many faces,including: "Mario Bros",
"Gyruss", "Spy Hunter",
"Beamrider", "PolePosition", "Robotron
2084", "Burning Rubber",
"Dragonfire" & "Space ShuttleJIS".

Bronze Medal: Apple II (35
or 37)My
first reaction back in college
was unimpressed - comparing it
to the
C64. The biggest drawback here
is the Sound, which is adequate
(5). The
intro music is OK, but
the effects are non-distinct –
almost sounding
alike. Some pieces
constantly make sounds during
battle, and those that
sound bad are
irritating. Fortunately, weapon
re-load is audible, so not
much loss to the game’s
charm & re-playability. There is
no music to
conclude the match.
Gameplay matches the Atari, as
outstanding (9) & all
versions are well done,
with great game depth. This
version probably has
the best demo as the 2
computer opponents can fight
quite a long battle
each time. Addictiveness
is pleasant (8), but I have
subtracted a point
due to poor programming
of the collision detection,
primarily of the
Banshee & also the
Phoenix. There may be others,
but the perimeter/area
weapons were poorly done
– larger than what is visibly
shown - making them
too powerful and just
plain unfair to those who are
unsuspecting. On all
versions, you can pause
indefinitely by waiting when it
is your turn to
move. The Graphics are
good enough (6) to see all the
action, but the
luminous squares are
crappy, not beautiful solid
colors, but pixelated
combinations of white,
black, orange & blue. Very
annoying trying to
figure out where you are
in the flow of time. Give us
solid colors please!
Controls are effective
(7), and give you a choice of 1
or 2 players and
also 1 or 2 joysticks and
then a selection for both light
& dark players
and finally to select the
keys on the keyboard for
movement/firing. Once again, a casual fan (like me)
cannot get my Apple II joystick
to both move
and fire - I must hold
the stick between my knees, then
hold one hand to
move the stick and one to
press the fire <Apple> button.
Regardless, the
analog control scheme
makes the 8 directions hard to
nail down, so you’ll still be off and misfire often
(ie like 5200 or Inty) – and in
this game,
you must be accurate or
you may die before you get the
second chance. For
those with two sticks,
properly working, Controls
should only have the
analog directional
problem and be outstanding (9).
Available only on disk.

Silver
Medal: Atari 8 Bit (42)My
first reaction is – this
original version is fine, but
could have beenimproved. Gameplay is
outstanding (9). Too bad
there’s only one computerskill level, and not a
choice to watch (the demo)
computer battle computer(for very long).
Addictiveness is great (9),
every game is unique, and there is so much variety,
strategy and randomness from
playing a different
human player, and even
from the computer. The Graphics
are very good (7)and the combatants
resemble fantasy creatures, but
not too much detail orcolor. The pieces could
be larger since the strategy
board uses a small portion of the screen. Fortunately the arena is full
screen. Sound isexciting (7) with a nice
theme song and a full set of
colorful audioeffects. They are
distinct (firing, re-loading,
hitting, missing) but seemto lack emotion of those
on the later released C64. The
Controls areperfect (10). Available
both on cart & disk. One of the
best 2-playergames ever on the Atari.

Gold Medal: Commodore 64 (45)My
first reaction was this is the
greatest disk game I’ve ever
loaded in a(jaw dropping) 13 seconds
- made possible via the Vorpal
loader. Secondsafter typing in that
Load"*",8,1 command, I could
open my dorm room door
and blast that awesome
music (my favorite 8 bit score)
down the hall - signaling another round of
"Archon" battles would begin
immediately. Thefirst 2 students to take
a break from studying would face
off, H-T-H in thearena. That next
generation of college students
would have twice the funwith 4-player "Bomberman"
battles, but that’s another
story. Scores and comments match the Atari, plus
the Gameplay is outstanding (9)
& the
Addictiveness is great (9). The
Graphics are sharper here (8),
the best ofall versions, but still
the weakest feature in this
game. Even more color& animation is possible.
A post battle victory strut (ie
like sacks ortouchdowns in the NFL)
would have been cool. Sound is
superb (9), with thetitle track nearly a work
of art. The effects are much
better – with thecrisp sound of a swing &
a miss, or cha-ching! Metal
connecting! Controls are perfect (10). Available
only on disk. One of the best
2-player gamesever on the C64.

Final notes: Simultaneous death
by pawns is cool. Phoenix vs
Phoenixbattles are boring and
there should be a law against
such impudence.

The Many Faces of...Boulder Dash

Rockford says "Don’t tap you’re
foot waiting for me!" He does
just that
whenever you’re not
moving him in search of the
secret jewels of the caves.
This "collect ‘em up"
plays somewhat like "Dig Dug",
but is such a fast
paced, action filled game
that you might not realize it.
There is less
violence than "Dig Dug"
because you have no weapon - but
you still have
rocks – boulders in this
case, to drop on the bad guys.
It’s just as much
fun, but requires a
significant amount of strategy
and planning to conquer
each cave. There are
often more enemies than you can
defeat, so knowing
the cavern and managing
your resources is critical. Due
to the fast pace
of the action – you can
be your own worst enemy –
dropping everything on
yourself, or getting
trapped. Your enemies do not
hunt you down, instead
they blindly move only in
open ground either ClockWise or
CCW and follow
the edge of the
openings. You move L/R/U/D and
move (dig) through the dirt
- each space moved takes
the same amount of time,
regardless if you are
digging or not, or
collecting the diamonds.
Collect the required number of
diamonds remaining as
show on-screen & then exit
before time’s up. Extra
diamonds means even more
(bonus) points getting you
closer to earning an
extra life, but don’t be
greedy. Opening up the space
below a diamonds or
boulders will bring them
& everything above down until
they stop falling.

Dash those boulders, which when
hitting your enemies will either
destroy
them or cause a diamond
explosion which fills that spot,
plus the 8 around
it – creating up to 9
diamonds. Hold the fire button
and push a direction
to grab a diamond or
clear dirt next to your space or
to push ONE boulder L/R. There are 3 start levels
for each of caves A, E, I or M
(ie 1, 6, 11
or 16), and levels 4 and
5 for Cave A, making 14
different starting points
for your game. After
completing Cave 20, move on to
Cave 1 on the next
level. Each cave is
unique, exactly 2 screens wide,
2 screens tall, and
the only randomness is
from the amebas. The more you
practice, the better
you will master the
skills required or at finding &
perfecting a pattern
for that cave. The game
moves along quickly, so patterns
are tedious, but
sometimes effective.

Home Version Similarities:
Except those in <> all home
versions have:
great introductory music;
a demo of Cave A <CV>; bonus
lives every 2K; a
timer for each level; #
of remaining diamonds to
collect; a chime when the
exit door appears <AP2>;
a warning when time is almost
up; a key to abort the life/timer (R/S, Esc or *)
if trapped; 2 players & 2
joysticks <AP2>; a
high score <C64, Atari>;
and a pause - space bar or on
the CV use <0> & <8>.

Have Nots: Spectrum (NA)
Spectrum fans often list
"Boulder Dash" in their top 10
lists. This is
currently my most desired
8 bit system to acquire, but I
doubt that’ll ever
happen. Until then, I’m
happy to mention what I can
here.

Have Nots: Apple II (42 or 44)
My
first reaction was the analog
controls and internal sounds are
the onlydrawbacks. The Gameplay
is fantastic (9) on all home
versions, with lotsof game depth, action and
creativity. The game start
options for practicingare terrific. In the NES
version, these are more
creatively replaced withthe very popular and even
more addictive passwords. This
is a collect’emup, action/adventure and
puzzle game combined. The
Controls are very nice(8), but if the joystick
button works for you score it a
(9). A point wasdeducted since fast
action never works well with
analog controls.Addictiveness is
wonderful (9) with all the start
levels to practice, butloose a point as grabbing
dirt and moving the other way
instantly isincredibly hard with
analog. Graphics are superb (9)
on all versions with great details & color aplenty.
Animation is pretty decent and
lots ofboulders & enemies can be
in flight simultaneously. Sound
is effective (7)and does not detract from
gameplay. The music & effects
would be a littlebetter on external
speakers. The ameba noises are
replaced by music here.
Available only on disk.

Silver Medal: Commodore 64 &
Atari 8 Bit (46)
Great 3 way battle with these
two just missing. All three
medal winners
have well done (9)
Gameplay, awesome (10)
Addicitveness. This is what
defines re-playability,
making us keep coming back game
after game. Then
the next night & the next
and then years later to try
again. Graphics are
wonderful (9); Sound is
pleasant (8) with nice echoes,
fade in/outs &
sufficient variety of
effects. The intro music is
nice, but what really
kicks - is the cascade of
boulders and/or diamonds
crashing and exploding
blending together and
overlapping beautifully.
Controls are perfect (10),
but all versions will
take some time getting used to
the timing of the
rapid movements.

Atari 8 bitMy
first reaction was "is this the
C64?" - sure enough these are
equivalent
versions - looking and
sounding much the same.
Available on disk, or on a
rare but much sought
after cart ($60).

Commodore 64My
first reaction back in ‘85 was
to keep on coming back to play
each levelagain and again until I
beat it. Available only on disk,
this gamefrequently ranks in top
10 lists for C64 fans. There
are 50+ games in theC64’s massive library
that are either spin-offs,
clones, home brews orcreated levels of this
game or the BD Construction Kit.

Gold Medal: Colecovision (47)
My
first reaction was excited by
its graphic brilliance. Alas,
this gameis a bit rare & since it
is really fun to play, you’ll
search long & hard -then pay $40+ for one. I
played it via a Dreamcast
emulator, but I don’tthink that hurts/helps
these scores. I was tempted to
drop theAddictiveness score a
notch as the screen scrolling
appears to be veryjerky - but maybe that is
due to the emulation. Even so,
this versionsupposedly allows one to
continue on the level just
completed pressing <*>after the game is over -
can’t beat that. The Graphics
are surely a workof art (10), with much
detail, variety or colors and a
really great 3-Dlook. This should make
CV fans cry for other carts to
have been so nicely done. If you cannot find this
baby, be happy to play the other
meal
winners for now.

From Cleveland, the heart of
Rock & Roll! & America's Roller
Coast.
Alan & Kathy Hewston, Proud
parents of almost 6 Yr. old
Samanthawho recently rode the
"Raven", #1 Wooden coaster on
the planet& almost 3 yr Timothy who
is on that long road of potty
training.

After a short hiatus, Sites of
the Month returns. Here is the
latest sites to check out:

Retrogames
R UsIf
you like to look at pictures,
this is a good site for you.
With cover scans of almost all
the classic magazines, a great
section for classic joysticks
and more, this site gives you a
bunch of cool stuff to look at.
I especially liked the joysticks
as you do not always see alot of
attention given to the vast
amount of controllers for the
Atari 2600. Here is the link to
the site:

Tolkien Computer Games
While not entirely classic, it
is something that many classic
gamers can relate with. Here is
a place to find out about all
the Tolkien inspired computer
games. While most are
homebrews, there is some very
imaginative stuff here. If you
are a fan of Lord of the Rings
and the Hobbit, then check it
out!

Time for more questions from the
readers of the newsletter (and
some other emails that I get:

What happened to all the video
games you had for sale on your
website?

I
had a person who has opened a
store purchase them. While the
deal is not complete yet, it
should be soon. To be honest, I
am glad to be out of selling
games. It has gotten harder to
replace them as I do not have as
much time to search the flea
markets and garage sales. Plus,
the level of competition in the
area has increased dramatically
in the past few years. I used
to be able to find stuff at the
flea markets with little
problem, but now there is a
dozen people looking for the
same stuff and it is a matter of
luck to find anything. I used
to never leave a flea market
empty handed, but now I almost
never find anything.

If the world was going to end
and you had time to play one
last game, what would it be?

To
be honest, if the world was
about to end, I would not be
playing video games.

I really love Joust because of
the two player mode. What other
classic games have cool two
player modes? Please no sports
games.

Since you did not say any
system, I will just list a
handful for different systems
and arcade games and you can
decide if they are on a system
want to get.

Atari 2600 - Warlords (great
four player mode), Pong (what is
a better two player game?)

Atari 7800 - Centipede, Joust,
Asteroids (yes they have two
player cooperative or
competitive modes on both
Centipede and Asteroids) and for
fun, do two player Robotron
where one person shoots and one
person moves. Very fun and
strange.

Odyssey 2-Quest for the Rings
(probably the best two player
game for a weak system)

Vectrex - Ripoff and Armor
Attack (two great two player
games)

Intellivision - Utopia (too fun
for words)

Bally Astrocade - Incredible Wizard (or as
it was known at the arcades,
Wizard of Wor)

Arcade - Joust, Timber, Wizard
of Wor, Ripoff, Armor Attack,
Pong, Warlords, there are so
many that I know I am forgetting
and this does not count the Bit
Age when you have Golden Axe,
Simpsons and a ton of others.

Another issue
in the can. The summer heat is
almost gone and I am happy to
see it go. Of course that means
the chill of winter is around
the corner. Brrrr. Check back
next issue as I bring you
another issue of classic
enjoyment. By the way, if
anyone would be kind enough to
burn me a copy of the
Intellivision emulator for the
Dreamcast with games, I would be
very appreciative. While I have
most of the games (as well as
both Intellivision Lives! CDs
and even the Playstation
compilation which is missing
most of the games I really like
<namely Diner, Thin Ice,
Truckin, Dracula, Worm Whomper,
the D & D games and Dreadnaught
Factor>), I would rather play
they on my 32 inch TV with my
Dreamcast arcade joystick
instead of the computer or with
the less than enjoyable
Intellivision controller (don't
bother me with the you need to
experience the games with the
original controller to
appreciate them, I have been
playing Intellivision games for
over 20 years on those awful
controllers and I would much
appreciate using my arcade
joystick).